BruceyB

They'll win the title without any challengers. But they also have 10 wrestlers that are going in believing they can win a national title. PSU's winning percentage in the semis is an absurd 83%. If they all of the sudden have a number of wrestlers on the backside after Friday night, that would be a disappointment by their own standards they have created.

This is my purpose of the post. If they fall short, it just brings them back down to reality. What they've done over the last decade plus is just unheard of. This year just seems like they may regress to the mean more than in recent years. If they continue their ridiculousness this year, I will just have to defer to the penn state bump from here on out.

Starocci is one of the greatest without a doubt. However, when comparing him in the pantheon of greatness, he lacks the attributes that many other athletes have displayed. He is an absolute winner first and foremost, but he doesn't display the same level of dominance that many other of the greats have shown. I know it's not a parallel example, but what has he done on the senior level that rivals his college success? Most of the all-timers were top 3 on the ladder while still in college, but Carter has not shown an ability to compete with the best even through his 5th year of college.

Taye Ghidiali is a prime example of this, and from his own mouth, Scotti Sentes was the one that encouraged him to transfer so that he could be in a better training / financial situation rather than staying at Cambell. Who knows how much he'll be getting for his year at Michigan, but it's certainly going to be helpful in setting up his life after collegiate wrestling is over. Taye had nothing but loving words to say about Scotti and his time at Cambell, and mentioned how important Scotti will be in his life going forward. It's not about an athlete turning on their program, but undeniable beneficial opportunities that can come to athletes to transfer in todays college landscape.

This isn't fair. How close is the relationship between Metcalf and the Brands bros, Gilman and the bros? For a reasonable comparison we need someone like Spencer Lee to take a head coaching job somewhere and for TnT to be dismissive of him ever being an hawkeye. To be fair, I don't see them turning on their athlete if it's purely a career move. Tom Brands left Iowa to pursue his own coaching dreams before coming back to his alma mater.

51-10 in the semis is absolutely ridiculous. 40-2 when the higher seed is even more insane. But I am curious, do you think with the seeds this year that PSU reverts closer to the norm? Or are you standing by the PSU bump? As I stated in my original post, I think this year may be more humbling for the PSU faithful than in recent years. They'll still easily win the title, but I do think they need to overperform to crown more than 3 champs this year. A ridiculous bar that they have created for themselves.

Agree 100%. That's why we need to change criteria to fall more in line with what is best for the sport rather than what is best for the individual athlete. Meyer Shapiro is the epitome of this issue. He wrestled essentially nobody this season and is rewarded with a #2 seed. There are a great deal of wrestlers with better wins on the season, and should (in my opinion) be seeded above him based on that. Brandon Cannon's wins over Askey and Miller are better than anything Shapiro can boast this year. Cannon should be seeded higher than Shapiro who didn't wrestle anyone. But because he came into the season ranked highly, he is rewarded for not taking any losses outside of an injury-default. This is the problem. Maybe the best thing is to get rid of pre-season rankings and rank purely on in-season results. To be the #1 ranked guy, you have to seek out the best competition to earn that #1 rather than maintain your ranking from last years results. Thoughts?

I messaged WKN and asked his permission to sanction a side-bet portion to his dark horse competition. I am proposing a $10 buy-in winner-takes-all pool. I am happy to handle entry fees unless the board would feel more trusting of a longstanding member who is willing to take on the task. We will follow WKN's criteria, and the highest finisher of this side-bet pool will win all of the money. I'll gladly handle the monitoring of this if we have a minimum of 15 participants. To clarify, @Wrestleknownothing's competition is 100% free. This pool is just for the degenerates like myself that would like a little extra action on the picks. If you would like to get this going, just comment.. "I'm in"

While I agree with your sentiment, it's also not Cael's job to grow the sport while jeopardizing his teams seeds come NCAAs. Meyer Shapiro was 11-1 this season and his best win is over the #22 seed, and he got the #2 seed. Until the regular season strength of schedule and quality of wins carry more weight, Cael has no reason to increase the rigor of PSU's schedule. They wrestle their B1G duals, and wrestle at B1Gs, but essentially nothing of any importance otherwise. The majority of their wrestlers hadn't even faced top 15 opponents going into the B1G schedule. Seeding criteria needs to change in a way that rewards a difficult schedule. Minimize punishment for losses, and heavily incentive quality wins. When quality wins matter more than losses, that is when you'll see teams seeking tough competition. But as we have witnessed this year, weak schedules and conference champions result in the best seeds.

Your slipping @ionel.

@Wrestleknownothing what is PSU's win percentage in the semis and finals during Cael's tenure? At risk of sounding like our good friend Jimmy, I am genuinely curious if this is the year that PSU's insane winning percentage in toss-ups at the NCAAs come back down to Earth. 125: Lilledahl has to beat Smith for a third time, and then win another difficult match in the final. 141:Bartlett will have a tough match against Jamison in the quarters, likely Mendez in the semis, and then another difficult match in the finals. 149: SVN just lost to Webster, and as the #3 seed, he needs to overcome an earlier loss against Lovett to exceed his seed. 157: Kasak is the #1 seed but I would consider him and Shapiro at minimum a toss-up. 165: Mesenbrink is a sure favorite. 174: Haines definitely could win, but he has to beat both Hamiti and O'Toole, each which I think would be his best two wins in his collegiate career. 184: Starocci is the favorite, but for whatever reason, I think Keck gets the job done this year. He just has so many ways to score. 197: Barr's injury is unknown, but if he isn't 100% he could definitely lose in the quarters. 285: Kerk is the favorite to make the final, but he's not winning, and will likely be in a dog fight against Hendrickson. This isn't meant in any way to be a hater post against Penn State, but I can't recall a year where they seemed to be fighting such an uphill battle for wrestlers to make the finals or win the whole thing. I'm curious to see how their overall semis/finals winning percentages over the last 15 years compare to what happens this week.

I can't tell what you mean here. Are you saying you're confused by how he doesn't seem to care about the sport outside of PSU, or are you saying you don't understand the accusations that he doesn't care about the sport outside of PSU? Just want to clarify.

To be fair, the Brands haven't had a wrestler that has left the program to pursue their own dreams of running a program. I understand cutting ties with an active athlete that leaves your program to train in another situation that they see as a better opportunity (Snyder and tOSU, Gilman with Iowa), but David Taylor was loyal to PSU and Cael Sanderson from the time he was in high school until this year. I just don't understand what more Cael could have asked from an athlete. He spent all of his competitive years until his tutelage, and once he retired.. what did Cael expect? I can't imagine not supporting a pupil of 15 years that makes a career decision for himself and his family, even if he does potentially become a rival. If Oklahoma State can challenge PSU, it's a good thing for the sport. Again, I don't know the truer innerworkings of the relationship, but from this interview it sounds like Cael has shunned DT and that is truly sad. I know that I would be heartbroken if I were David Taylor and my mentor of my entire adult life cut off ties because I wanted to create my own legacy.

I find it pretty disappointing that Cael basically disregarded any acknowledgement for a former athlete that has been the most notable wrestler of all of the greats during Cael's tenure. I don't expect him to hand over his playbook of how to build a college program, but he could have at least said a number of things that would have come off a lot better. It really just sounded like "David Taylor left PSU and so we don't even say his name around here anymore." If that's actually how Cael's changed his relationship with an athlete that spent 15 years with him, that is really disappointing. I would hope he'd be happy for Taylor stepping into his own program, and just see him as respected competition, not a turncoat.

Just wanted to give a shout out as this is my first time participating in a fantasy draft that isn't a mainstream sport where there is a website that does all of the work for you. @lu_alum and @VakAttack, thank you for your time and effort. I'm excited to be apart of this.

Lorenzo Norman 174

Composto 141

Voelker 197

bouzakis 133

McNeil 149

Berge

Peyton Hall

Keegan O'Toole

I was trying to find the old Askren interviews and couldn't find any of the good ones.

They are the only ones in this situation. I don't understand how the parties involved didn't get a concrete determination on whether or not he could compete this season. I also find it hard to believe they would just have an athlete train all year knowing he wasn't eligible and hoping it would go unnoticed. Unless they were told by an incorrect NCAA compliance person that Tyler Brennan was granted a 5th active season, I don't understand how this situation happens. If they were not told he had eligibility, it's seems pretty cut and dry that he competed illegally and should not be allowed to wrestle. If they were incorrectly told that he could compete, then that's where I can see things getting held up, and why it's taking so long to get an answer. Obviously, this would never happen with a true AA contender, or an athlete on to trophy contending team, but I do think the matter should be handled the same as if it were. Letting him compete just because it likely won't effect team standings or the podium is not a good reason to let him compete.